Breakdown of ¿Has perdido la mochila? No, no la he perdido.
no
no / not
la
it / her (f)
haber
to have (auxiliary)
perder
to lose
la mochila
the backpack
Questions & Answers about ¿Has perdido la mochila? No, no la he perdido.
Why is la placed before he? Can I say he perdidola?
No, you cannot attach it to the end here. In the pretérito perfecto (present perfect), object pronouns like la must always go right before the conjugated helping verb haber (in this case, he). You can never split the two parts of the verb (he and perdido), and you cannot attach pronouns to a past participle like you would with an infinitive.
Since la refers to the feminine word la mochila, shouldn't it be la he perdida?
Good guess, but no! When used to form the pretérito perfecto tense, the past participle (perdido) never changes to match gender or number. It always ends in -o, even if the direct object pronoun (la) refers to a feminine object.
Why are there two nos in the phrase No, no la he perdido?
How do we get has perdido and he perdido?
These are in the pretérito perfecto tense, often used in Spain for recent past actions. You form it by combining the present tense of the helping verb haber (has for "you", he for "I") with the past participle of the main verb. For perder (to lose), you drop the -er and add -ido to get perdido.
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